Supporting disabled children, young people and their families: consultation analysis

Introduction

The Children and Families Directorate at the Scottish Government has worked closely with a number of individuals and organisations including ninety policy areas within Government, disabled children and young people, their families and practitioners, and various third sector organisations, to develop a resource document to support disabled children, young people and their families. The resource is intended to coordinate and drive improvements in the experiences of disabled children and young people by providing clear, accessible information on national policies, entitlements, rights and support. The resource is centred on three key areas: rights and information; accessibility of support; and transitions to adult life. A key impetus for the resource has been evidence gathered from a survey commissioned by the Scottish Government in 2016 which explored the views of families with disabled children - the survey found that there was widespread support for a centralised resource which signposts the support available, and the policy and legislative framework underpinning support for disabled children and their families.

A consultation was issued to review the full content of the resource and ensure it meets the information needs of disabled children, young people and their families. The consultation was issued on the 5^th of June 2018 and closed on the 5^th of September 2018, a total of 110 responses were received. One duplicate response was received and was removed from the dataset, leaving a total of 109 responses for analysis. The profile of respondents is shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1. Profile of respondents - split between organisation and individual level responses

The remainder of this report presents a high level indicative summary of the responses to the consultation.